NetApp Accelerator: Women leaders in Cloud Nine due to technology initiatives

Technology, like all businesses, benefits from diversity. Thanks to NetApp Excellerator, a fairly successful startup accelerator program from California-based company NetApp, women entrepreneurs are now in Cloud Nine. In just five years since its inception, the program has accelerated the journey of more than 60 startups working in deep technical space, several of which are led by women. “Over the course of 5 years, six of the 58 former startups have been acquired and 13 have raised additional funds,” said Ravi Chabria, Managing Director, NetApp India.

With Cohort 10, NetApp has onboard eight new startups that are using technology to solve real-world problems. EduFuse, Streamingo Solutions, LivNSense, AccuKnox, NeuroSAPIR, ShardSecure, Kubermatic, and Subcom form this elite team, representing various sectors such as green-technology, Cubernets, computer vision, health-technology and cloud security.

Through NetApp ExcellerateHER, an initiative launched in 2020 to promote women founders, NetApp has so far advised eight women-led deep-tech startups. ExcellerateHER’s current team will also see the participation of 3 tech startups – LivNSense, EduFuse and Streamingo – leading to number 11.

Vidya Neto, co-founder of Streamingo Solutions (CoHort 10), says, “The NetApp Accelerator program is an excellent initiative.” “At Streamingo Solutions, we offer digital automation solutions for analyzing human activity in video through our AI-powered video insights platform, PhysStream. The global exposure is very special with great minds and access to knowledge through NetApp. At the same time, it is comforting to meet and interact with other successful women entrepreneurs and role models, “she added.

As a SaaS platform, FireCompass (Cohort 9) replaces Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART) and Attack Surface Management (ASM). The platform continuously indexes and monitors deep, dark and surface nets using nation-state grade reconnaissance techniques. Its co-founder Priyanka Ash said, “Being part of the NetApp ExcellerateHER program is a great experience. Personally, what was exciting was the opportunity to go to the Joint Go-to-Market (GTM). Through this, we have become acquainted with Netapp’s team of global experts. Additionally, proof of concept funding that was an integral part of the program helped us fine-tune our offers, ”he said.

BrainSight.AI (Cohort 9) is a specialized SaaS tool that helps diagnose the path of illness in brain disorders. “As a woman entrepreneur running a deep technology startup, it was difficult to access role models in one place. With the NetApp ExcellerateHER program, I’ve learned from peers who have followed the same path, “said Laina Emanuel, co-founder and CEO of BrainSight.AI. Our cloud-based solutions have helped build the technological architecture for our platform, “he added.

“The fifth anniversary of the NetApp Accelerator program is looking to guide us to a new generation of startups that are all hybrid multi-cloud capable and built on data in some of the world’s most popular cloud services,” said Chabria. Over the years, the program has become truly global in nature. As a result, startups have access to resources, consultants, and industry experts from all geographies. Over the past five years, NetApp has consulted 20 global startups, including the current team of five global startups in Germany, the United States and Israel.